how do you play small PP's?

i'm curious how you play small PP's, 8's thru 2's. i'm happy to call the blinds and try to hit a set, which i think everybody is. i don't mind calling a small raise either depending on how high the cards are. depending on the flop i might make a small bet to see where i stand with them and try to steal the blinds. is this the typical way most people play them? obviously it all depends on the situation, position, size of the blinds and so on, but what is your PF strategy when faced with these cards.

generic answer to a generic question: "it depends".

seriously, you're better off posting some specific examples. limping, raising, or folding can all be the 'correct' play with a low pp, it all depends on the situation.

i agree the situation always matters with those hands! the players the betting and how the have played hands before! with the smaller PP's its the situation that makes the hand! good luck

ok then, you are UTG, blinds are at 200 and 400, you are double your starting chip stack.

what was our starting chip stack?

what position in the tournament are we at (bubble/itm/half the field left/etc)?

what's everyone else's stack sizes?

ok we all have starting stacks of 1500

our current stack 3000

blinds 100/200

we r in 3rd pos on the tble with big stack who is lag with 7500 to act behind other thn tht all stacks from 1500 to 6k
utg dealt pp wot u do
tble has 2 lags rest r tight

Add to this:
"Is your table loose or tight?"
"What is your position - UTG, middle, button?"

Generically speacking, if the blinds are 200/400, and you have double the starting stack in an MTT, you're most likely under the magic "10 BB" figure (unless this is a deep-stack tourney), so a call is not wise UTG - but jamming is very much appropriate here. You need to make it as expensive as you can for people to see flops with this hand at this stage of the tournament, and taking down the blinds and antes will win you roughly a quarter of your stack here, which ain't too shabby.

LOL everyone here is sooo right the answer is, "it depends".

In general ... hummm

What gear are you in? Fast and loose, TAG or LAG, maybe tight passive. How's the table been running? Tight, loose somewhere in between?

Early position I like to see the flop as cheap as possible and just call, I'll even call a minimum re-raise. If the table is tight I might raise with them myself from EP depending on what the other players are like individually.

Middle position the same as EP but with a higher probablility of raising if my opponents to my left are conservative.

Late position, if it's folded around to me I raise, with a tight table and limpers I raise, with a loose table I call and hope to hit the flop.

Ring games and tournaments are differant, tall stack and short stack, early tournament, middle or late stages. Depending on your position and stack size sometimes any pocket pair needs to be pushed all-in, or just a calculated call gambling for luck.

LOL as the others say, "It depends"!

thank you Mrdaman, that's all i was looking for, i should have wrote for everybody to add there own senario. i thought it was kind of implied when i said depending on the situation. i guess i didn't feel like typing out 10 different situations when faced with pocket dueces.

there u go mrda man wrote the post no else couls be bothered too

I just dont get it if someone wants a generic answer to a question why not just google it?

if you want specific why not put up a hand history?

uhg, lets not make a greek tragedy out of this. i already know the answers as to how i would play them given any situation. all i am curious about is how you fine people would play them given your own situations. make up any that you want as did mrdaman.

if i wanted to get a pre typed answer from some donk off of google i would have done so, i wanted honest live answers from the forum. after all isn't this what the forum is for.

next time i have a question or pose a debate i will type in a specific senario so we can avoid all of this. sorry if i wasted anybody's time.

most of the pretyped answers you would get from google are usually inserts from poker books written by rich donks.

like DM said it all is situation dependent....

cash game?
tourney?
stack sizes?
POSITION?
blinds?
are there ante's?
your image?
their image?


small pocket pairs are played different in different situations, you want us to make up our own situation you would have like 100 different answers and how would that help anyone?

i fully understand that it all depends on the situation, really i get it. insert your own situations as mrdaman did.

ok thats easy,

blinds 1k/2k I have 20k, I get 22 utg so I fold.



wow that was fun

now that wasn't too difficult was it.

lol @ this thread but anyway. Pocket pairs can be played for set value when our M is high (we have lots of chips in relation to the blinds) against aggressive players. So limping/calling a small raise is fine, and we would be hoping to win a nice pot.

As the tournament progresses in general all the stack sizes decrease in reation to the blinds, we will not be correct in playing for set value, but pushing all our pairs for the blinds and antes which at this stage of the tournament should be a nice increase to our stack. First in gusto (as Harrington would call it) is important here, read up on the gap concept if your unsure, going over the top of a PF raiser is generally incorrect because we lose our fold equity. We shouldnt mind racing against AK or equivelent overcards.

But as the posters above said, it depends. If your finding concepts like this difficult go get Harrington on Holdem 1 and 2

I got another one, posting this obvious as hell stuff is fun.


you are in cutoff (1 off the button for you that dont know)

blinds 1k/2k and you hold 35k and have 22

4 people go all in before you for a total of 20k to your stack.


YOU FOLD.....

INVENT OUR OWN SCENARIOS EH

It's the X'Veryyphian Series of Poker, from the Q'Arzza Casino on the planet Z'Zzzzq.

After 2 days of gruelling poker (it may not sound like much, but a Z'Zzzzqian day is 128 hours long), I'm heads up for the championship with W'Uzzra of the planet W'Tfhax.

He raises from the button. I look down at 4d4h. I have a read on W'Uzzra - when the third tentacle on his right side starts quivering, it means he's bluffing. I elect to go AWRRRRIN with my 4s just to take the pot.

He calls with AcAs. My read was way off - I'd neglected to notice that it was actually the fourth tentacle that was quivering, which indicated he had a huge hand. I'd probably had one too many Z'Zzzzqian whiskeys and too little sleep.

Flop: AdAh8s
Turn: 4s
River: 4c
S'zzwrt: 4r

I win with quint 4s - ship money kthx. As W'Uzzra slithers off I hear him quietly muttering something about all X'Veryyphian games being rigged or something.

I saw that game DK, was bad beat.

jesus, jesus, i know how to play them, i'm am comfortable in my ability to play small PP's. i was just curious as to how everyone else plays them. everyone plays them different. yes there are a set of rules or guidelines that you should follow when faced with these cards, but you can't follow the guidelines all the time.

stormswa, good call folding behind four all ins, you must be a genius poker player, i could learn a lot from you. (end sarcasm).

at least dorkus has imagination. good post, i enjoyed that.

I will fix your post....

good one, very original. you must be very proud of yourself for coming up with that one.

i like this forum and i'm not going to continue this, so have a nice life stormswa, i will ignore you from here on out

expect alot of holes in the threads then LOL.


you really need how to calm down and take a joke.

DISCLAIMER: This post may be offensive to prudish people, kthx.

WORLD SERIES OF STRIP POKER FINAL TABLE ZOMG

Chris (10,250,000 chips)
Jessica Alba (33,900,000 chips)

Blinds 50k/100k

We've just got back from a break in which we ironed out a funky deal. I agreed to let Ms Alba win the donkament by raising all but one chip, then folding in exchange for 15 minutes of sweet, sweet buttsex.

We get down to it right there on the table, no messing. "**** me, **** me" she continually screams as [insert graphic detail here].

All too soon, the 15 minutes are up. The tournament director appears out of nowhere. Turns out that the WSOSP is subject to the same rules as the WSOP, and that each utterance of the "F-bomb" means 30 minutes forced sitting out time. Ms Alba is therefore forced to sit out for 31 hours and 30 minutes.

I look down at 22 on the button. I raise all but one chip, as I continue to do on every button. Eventually, I R WINNAR.

For my evil angle-shooting I become known as the "Jamie Gold of strip poker". A striking similarity manifests itself here too, as I fall out with a friend of mine over an agreement I had to give him half of my action in the event. He got half the prize money, but apparently he was angry he didn't get 7.5 minutes of hot steamy buttsex with Jessica Alba.

Conclusion: Always have hot steamy buttsex before playing low pps on the button HU.

LMAO ^this can't be a sober Chris...

And we take poker advice from this guy???????

hell yea DK has made more sense in this post then any other I have ever seen!!!!

i don't know whether to be flattered or offended

DISCLAIMER: This post may be offensive to prudish people, kthx.

WORLD SERIES OF STRIP POKER FINAL TABLE ZOMG

god i was gonna do one of these =/

Market the WSOSP to a Vegas casino, I'm sure they'd love it and it'll be picked up by ESPN in less than a year. Wonder how the commentary by Norman Chad and Lon *whathisname* would go?

Preview of WSOSP ESPN broadcast-----

Lon: And here we are at famous Binions casino, for the 1st annual WSOSP, the World Series of Strip Poker. The final table is set, with a few pros and a couple amateurs, Norm who do you consider the favorite here?

Norm: Well, normally my pick would have to be Phil Ivey, considering I am secretly in love with him and pick him in every single tournament he plays because I don't have the guts to make a serious pick, but today I don't think he'll have his A-game. Ivey's trademark *I'm on drugs eye-movement* will be emphatically conquered and dettered by the horrendous view of Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow being low stacked, and being forced to start the final table without their respective shirts.

Lon: So who is your favorite Norm?

Norm: Annie Duke and Clonie Gowan, the first two women ever to make it to a WSOSP final table (no, mention that this is the first please). We all know that a man can't concentrate when bra and panties are in sight and plain view. So I've come to the conclusion that once the two women lose a couple pots they will be unstoppable.

Lon: Are you saying that the women's strategy will be to lose the first few pots on purpose, in order to win later.

Norm: Yes, that's exactly what will happen. Because we all know it, the WSOSP is rigged so that the women will win, and the men to just go down in flames.

-----Yes I'm bored at work, but not bored enough to finish this, lol.